Set in the village of Pozoamargo in Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha region, pic turns on a man who finds out he’s suffering from a venereal disease.

“Pic is an analysis of guilt, a product of morality and, in the ultimate analysis, a useless sentiment,” Rivero explained. “The main character won’t create a sense of audience empathy: He is an anti-hero.”

“Pozo” will shoot in 2013, split into two stages — grape-picking in September, the olive-harvest in January.

Rivero will lense his sophomore feature, “Mai morire,” in February.

“Morire” is co-produced by Una Comunion and Zamora Films with the support of Netherlands’ Hubert Bals Fund. Pic is set in Mexico City’s Xochimilco, a district whose inhabitants travel by boat via canals.

“In a place where people live as they did five centuries ago, a middle-aged woman comes back to take care of her ill mother and is forced to take some serious decisions,” Rivero explained, saying “Morire” talks about transcendence.

Rivero became one of Mexico’s foremost left-of-field helmers with his first feature, “Parque via.” It nabbed Locarno’s Golden Leopard in 2008, the Ingmar Bergman Intl. Debut Award at Sweden’s Gothenburg Festival, and the audience award at the now-defunct Mexico City Ficco fest — both in 2009 — among a bevy of kudos.